York Historic Environment Record

YORK SE6052SW DUNCOMBE PLACE 1112-1/27/307 (North West side) 14/06/54 The Red House and railings attached at front GV II* Town house, now offices; railings attached to front. c1714 with later C18 extension; C19 and C20 alterations. For Sir William Robinson MP. MATERIALS: front of red painted brick in Flemish bond, with painted stone doorcase, quoins and dressings, on painted stone basement; ashlar basement and ground floor to both returns, upper storeys of orange-brown brick, English garden-wall bond to left, random bond to right; timber modillion eaves cornice, returned at each end; brick stacks to slate hipped roof. Extension of red-brown brick in English garden-wall bond. Rear wing and extension have slate roofs with tumbled brick gable ends. Cast-iron railings on low stone plinth and stone steps. PLAN: central entrance hall plan with rear right wing and rear left extension. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, basement and attic; 5-bay front, each bay breaking forward slightly. Basement openings blocked. Steps lead up to 6-panel front door and overlight recessed in moulded architrave with palmette bootscrapers on either side. Overdoor cartouche with segmental pediment has City arms set on panel between garlanded volutes. To right of door, conical torch extinguisher with moulded stone panel. Ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes over full-width sill band; first floor windows are tall 18-pane sashes with sills extended the width of each bay. Dormers have squat 6-pane windows and segmental pediments. Left return: 2-storey return with Dutch gable, to right of lower 2-storey 3-bay extension. In centre of gable end, two full-height chimney flues conjoin in keyed semicircular arch over first floor window. Windows are 12-pane sashes, those on first floor with segmental brick arches over blind tympana. In extension, ground floor has two 12-pane sashes, one C20 9-pane light; first floor, 12-pane sash, 2x6-pane Yorkshire sash and 16-pane sash. Right return: 2-storey gable end to left of long 2-storey wing. Steps lead up to 4-panel door recessed beneath timber lintel in gable end. Second door of 6 sunk panels with divided overlight beneath stone arch to wing. Between doors is tall sash window to staircase, with radial-glazed secondary staircase window further right. Other windows include two unequal 15-pane sashes, one with original glazing, and one tripartite sash window with elliptical brick arch. INTERIOR: cellars in front range separated by stud partition wall: two chamfered mullioned windows survive, both blocked. Kitchen in rear wing has segment-arched blocked fireplace of painted brick. Ground floor: left front room retains heavy moulded ceiling beams. Opening in fluted surround leads to rear left room which has moulded dado rail and plain fireplace with round-headed grate: two semi-domed niches in rear wall, one converted to doorway to extension. Round arch leads to stairhall. Main staircase to second floor has open string, slender turned balusters and shaped treadends, moulded ramped-up handrail, wreathed at foot around turned newel on shaped curtail step: stairwell retains parallel moulded dado rail. Secondary staircase rises from ground floor to attic and has moulded close string, turned balusters with square newels, and splat balusters to top flight. Rear room in wing has fireplace with timber lintel and doors of 3 raised and fielded panels. Rear room in extension has plain fireplace with duck-nest grate. First floor: front left room lined in full height bolection moulded panelling: enriched overmantel panels to blocked fireplace: moulded cornice. Rear left room, entered through bolection-moulded doorcase, has heavy moulded cornice and fireplace with round-headed grate in egg-and-dart surround. Front right room retains moulded cornice and has altered fireplace with moulded jambs, angle roundels and square-headed moulded grate. Passage to rear wing lined with square wainscotting and bolection moulded panelling. First room in wing: plain fireplace has central frieze panel with vestigial composition mouldings, dentilled cornice shelf and hob grate: flanking cupboards have 2-panel doors: fluted skirting and door and window architraves. Second room in wing: partly fitted with square panelling above moulded dado rail: bolection moulded fireplace with plain shelf: moulded cornice: two doors are 2-panelled. Rooms in extension have plain fireplaces with basket grates, one flanked by cupboards with panelled and plank doors. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: early C19 cast-iron railings. Between 1740-71, The Red House was the residence of Dr John Burton, model for Dr Slop in Lawrence Sterne's Tristram Shandy. (City of York: RCHME: The Central Area: HMSO: 1981-: 130-1). Listing NGR: SE6012552107